October 11, 2005

Lynn started the day with Snoopy and me. Immediately after leaving the parking lot, we came across Fuller Lake and Beach. It was an overcast day in the middle of the week in October. As a result, we were the only ones there. After the lake, the trail is a well graded gravel path for about 1/2 of a mile before leaving the park. Just a few minutes after this I came across one of the biggest milestones for thru hikers
: the halfway marker. Although the actual halfway point changes from year to year as a result of relos
, this is about as close as you can get to the center. I wished I was halfway, but at this point I was only about 5% done with the trail. It wasn't far from the park so another day I hiked in with Lynn so she could take my picture by it.

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Another highlight of the day was going through Rocky Ridge. I thoroughly enjoyed this section of trail as I had to climb up and down boulders. It reminded me of Mahoosuc Notch in Maine but not nearly as difficult. At one place the path cut through some boulders with arrows pointing to Maine and Georgia. On another evening, Lynn and I hiked back in from Whiskey Spring Road to get a few shots.

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I bypassed the Alec Kennedy Shelter and hiked up to Center Point Knob. I enjoyed the gradual 600 foot descent from here back down into the valley. I went through a couple more miles of PA farmland before entering one of my favorite trail towns: Boiling Springs. I passed an old iron furnace on the way.

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I went by a beautiful pond. The actual trail is the gravel path to the right of the pond.

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After the pond I stopped at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's Mid-Atlantic Regional Office.

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I was glad this was here because I was pounding out the mileage quicker than I anticipated and needed more A.T. maps. Come to find out, they don't sell maps. This really, really surprised me. Fortunately, there was a sporting goods store next door that carried A.T. maps.